We derive inner dark matter halo density profiles for a
sample of 200 dwarf galaxies by inverting rotation curves
obtained from high-quality, long-slit optical spectra. Each
galaxy in the sample shows no evidence for a bulge, bar or
other baryonic distortions as determined by accurate I-band
photometry. For \rho(r) ~ r-\alpha near the galaxy
center we obtain a distribution of measured inner profile
slopes \alpham that peaks at \alpham~ 0.3, similar
to values found by other authors (e.g. de Blok et
al. 2003, Swaters et al. 2003), and in stark contrast
to the intrinsic cusps (\alphaint~ 1) predicted by
simulations of halo assembly in CDM cosmologies. To assess
the severity of the discrepancy between our results and CDM
predictions, we simulate long-slit observations of a
population of intrinsically cuspy (\alphaint =1) dwarf
halos. The large sample size in this study permits a
quantitative comparison between theory and observations, in
which the impact of a variety of observational and data
processing biases can be analyzed in a statistically
significant manner. Our simulations recover both the
observed distribution of \alpham and correlations between
\alpham and primary observational parameters such as
distance and disk inclination. We conclude that, in our
long-slit spectroscopy data sample, the observations are
consistent with cuspy halos as predicted by the CDM paradigm
without recourse to halo triaxiality, modifications of
Newtonian dynamics or other exotic phenomena. This work is
partially funded by NSF grants AST-9900695 and AST-0307661.